Last January, The Dismemberment Plan announced that after 10 years, four well-received albums and countless tours that earned them a reputation for being one of the most consistently exciting live acts on the planet they were calling it quits.
Eight months later, they're still around. As a matter of fact, they're in Japan for two weeks, most of it as the opening act for local indie-rock heartthrobs Quruli, but despite the carping of Internet yentas who feel that the long goodbye has gone on too long, the group's dismemberment has, in fact, proceeded exactly according to plan.
"It's weird that people are saying that," comments Travis Morrison, the Plan's lead singer and guitarist. "We said there would be two tours and then Japan. Everything we said we were going to do in the time frame we were going to do it in we've been doing."